Olympic tennis tournament. Main news
In the tennis tournament, Russian girls showed an outstanding result.
Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina And Vera Zvonareva fully occupied the podium, winning all the medals in the women's singles tournament and at the same time bringing the Russian team victory in the overall medal standings tennis tournament. This is the first time since 1908 when the entire podium was occupied by representatives of one country (100 years before the Russians, the British managed to do this).
Russian pedestal. Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva
In the final with a score of 3:6, 7:5, 6:3, Dementieva snatched victory from Safina, and in the match for third place Zvonareva without special problems outplayed the hostess of the competition Na Lee - 6:0, 7:5.
Elena Dementieva
In the women's doubles category, the sisters excelled Williams, repeating their 2000 Sydney success. And the eldest of the sisters, Venus, became the first woman in history to win 3 Olympic gold medals in tennis (in 2000 in Sydney, an American won gold in both categories).
Venus and Serena Williams
The Spaniard won the men's tournament Rafael Nadal, beating the Chilean in the final Fernando Gonzalez.
Rafael Nadal on the way to the Beijing "gold"
González, who won bronze in Athens in 2004 and silver in Beijing, became the first tennis player since 1920 to win a singles medal in two consecutive Olympics. Plus, Fernando collected full set Olympic awards - four years earlier in Athens, he won gold in doubles (with Nicholas Massu) and bronze in singles.
The podium of honor of the men's singles tournament. From left to right: Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) - silver, Rafael Nadal (Spain) - gold, Novak Djokovic (Serbia) - bronze.
Swiss Roger Federer, who was considered the main favorite of the tournament, sensationally lost at the 1/4 final stage and, thus, could not compete for prizes in singles. However, the famous Swiss did not remain without a medal. Paired with Stanislas Wawrinka Federer won the men's doubles tournament.
Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer celebrate victory in the men's doubles tournament
All winners:
Men's singles
1. Rafael Nadal (Spain)
2. Fernando Gonzalez (Chile)
3. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Women's singles
1. Elena Dementieva (Russia)
2. Dinara Safina (Russia)
3. Vera Zvonareva (Russia).
Men's doubles
1. Switzerland (Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka)
2. Sweden (Simon Aspelin, Thomas Johansson)
3. USA (Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan).
Women's doubles
1. USA (Serena Williams, Venus Williams)
2. Spain (Anabel Medina Garrigues, Virginia Ruano Pascual)
3. China (Yan Zi, Zheng Jie).
The upcoming tennis tournament of the XXXI Summer Olympic Games will be the fifteenth in the history of the Olympics and the eighth in the recent history of tennis - after tennis returned to the number one in 1988. Olympic sports sports.
Five sets of medals will be played at the Olympic tournament: in singles and doubles in men and women, as well as in the category of mixed doubles. The tournament will be held under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee, with the support of the ITF. Participants in the tennis tournament as part of the 2016 Olympics will not receive points in the ATP and WTA ratings.
All matches in the tournament will be played in a three-set format. The exception is the final of the men's singles tournament, which will be held in a five-set format. The decisive set in all categories, except for "mixed", will be held without a tie-break. In case of equality in the "mixed" games, the winner will be determined by the "championship tie-break" system.
In men's singles, Serb Novak Djokovic was the first seed. The world ranking leader starts with a match against Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro, whom he lost in the bronze medal match at the 2012 Olympics in London. Already in the second round, Novak can meet with the Portuguese Joao Sousa, whose starting opponent was the Dutchman Robin Haase. The most likely opponent of Djokovic in the third round match is American Jack Sock, who has established himself in the status of a Top 30 player.
In the duel for reaching the semi-finals of the Games, the Serbian player can meet with the French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut, who already has two titles in 2016, won on hard-surface competitions. The Luxembourger Gilles Muller is quite capable of preventing the first, while the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov will try to block the second at the start.
Also in the upper part of the grid is the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who will start the performance with the Argentinean Federico Delbonis. Really serious competition to Rafael in the fight for reaching the 1/4 finals of the competition can be imposed only by the Frenchman Gilles Simon, whose results have not been encouraging lately. Playing against Rafael is the fact that he has not yet fully recovered from an injury to his left wrist. Obviously, if health allows Nadal to perform in full force, then the Spaniard with a high degree of probability will fight for a medal of the highest standard.
In the third quarter, the Japanese Kei Nishikori, who reached the final of the Masters in Toronto last week, will begin his tournament journey. In the first round, he will meet with the Spaniard Albert Ramos, who had an excellent part of the season on the dirt. Then Kei, most likely, will confront the Lithuanian Richardas Berankis. The problems for the Japanese may start at the 1/8 final stage, where he can play with the German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The fight in the final quarter of the grid promises to be interesting as well. Of course, the status of the main favorite here belongs to Andy Murray, who won the gold of the London Olympics. This is not surprising, because the Briton won the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in three years - Wimbledon.
The lot was favorable to Andy in Rio de Janeiro. At least a somewhat dangerous opponent can meet Murray only in the third round, and even then the most likely contender for this - the Frenchman Benoit Pere - is far from being in optimal shape.
Only in the 1/4 finals, the Briton, whose entry into this stage is beyond doubt, may face some difficulties, although, in all honesty, neither the Spaniard David Ferrer nor the American Steve Johnson should become a serious obstacle for Murray.
The main character in the upper part will be the leader of the world ranking table, American Serena Williams. The current champion of the Games will begin her tournament journey with a duel with Australian Daria Gavrilova.
In the second round, Serena may face Frenchwoman Alize Kornet, whose starting opponent will be Sweden's Johanna Larsson. In the match for reaching the quarterfinals, Williams Jr. is likely to fight with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. In the 1/4 final match, Serena's opponent could be Italian Roberta Vinci or Czech Petra Kvitova.
In the second quarter of the upper half tournament bracket Spaniard Garbin Muguruza and American Venus Williams will start the performance. However, Swiss Timea Bachinsky and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova are quite capable of preventing them from meeting in the quarterfinals.
Muguruza will start the performance with a duel with Serbian Jelena Jankovic. Already in the second round, the Spaniard can fight with the Romanian Irina-Camellia Begu, and in the 1/8 finals of the Olympics, she can play with Pavlyuchenkova.
Venus Williams will face Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in the opening round. Already in next match the American can play with the Czech Lucy Shafarzhova, and Venus' opponent in the third round match, perhaps, will be Bachinski.
The third quarter of the tournament grid turned out to be no less interesting. Here, the fourth racket of the tournament, Polish Agnieszka Radwańska, will start his performance. In the first round, Agnieszka will face China's Zheng Saisai. The first truly dangerous opponent of the polka can be Russian Daria Kasatkina, with whom Radwańska can fight in the second round.
Agnieszka will most likely fight Czech Barbora Strykova for reaching the quarterfinals of the competition. In the 1/4 final match, the polka can play with the American Madison Keys, who became the vice-champion of the competition in Montreal a week ago.
In the second quarter lower half the tournament bracket will start the competition German Angelique Kerber, who received the second number when sowing. The winner of the Australian Open at the start of the tournament will meet with Colombian Mariana Duque Marina. Despite the fact that Angelique could not reach the final of the tournament in Montreal, she looks like the favorite of her part of the bracket.
In the second round of the tournament, the German will play with the winner of the meeting between Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and American Sloane Stevens, and then, apparently, will face Australian Samantha Stosur, who received the 13th seed when she was seeded.
In the upper part of this quarter, the focus will be on the Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the first round, Svetlana will face the Chinese Jiang Wang. Then either the Romanian Monica Niculescu or Veronica Cepede-Roig from Paraguay will stand in the way of Kuznetsova. In the third round, the Russian woman can meet with the British Johanna Konta.
11th century beginnings
The earliest recognizable relative to tennis, as we know it, was "jeu de paume", played in 11th century France. Played in a monastery courtyard, the game used the walls and sloping roofs as part of the court and the palm of the hand to hit the ball.
Tennis overtakes croquet
By the late 19th century, the popularity of lawn tennis had overtaken croquet in England. For this reason, the All England Croquet Club embraced the sport and designated certain croquet lawns to be used for tennis. It was this natural supply of venues combined with the already existing framework for a racquet game that resulted in the birth of the modern game in England.
An international sport
In 1913, lawn tennis was becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Therefore it seemed natural that the existing National Tennis Associations should join forces to ensure the game was uniformly structured. An international conference was held between 12 nations in Paris and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) was created.
professional dilemma
Tennis has a long Olympic history but withdrew from the program after 1924. It did not return as a medal sport until 1988. Professionals are now welcome to compete, and the Olympic competition includes men"s and women"s singles and men"s and women's doubles.
Tennis is an old-timer Olympic discipline. Competitions were included in the program of the Games already in 1896, but they were removed from their composition in 1924. Tennis entered the Olympics again only in 1988, when summer Olympic Games took place in Seoul. Since 1900, tennis has been played by both men's and women's teams.
Tennis players
Participants of the Summer Olympic Tennis Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 are 172 athletes, 86 men and women each. Total for tennis players Olympic Committee prepared five sets of awards in the following types of competitions:
- Men's singles (64 participants);
- Women's singles (64 participants);
- Men's doubles (32 duets);
- Women's doubles (32 duets);
- Mixed (16 pairs).
No more than 12 athletes can go from one country to the Summer Olympic Games. Men and women, up to six of each gender. Competition qualification is still underway, qualifying tournament did not end at the beginning of June. The final list of participants will appear only in June, shortly before the start of the Olympics itself. Only at this point will the selection be completed. If a country has more than four tennis players who have the highest numbers in the world ranking, no more than four of them can participate in the Games.
Tennis calendar
Competitions will begin on the second day after the start of the Olympics, and will last from 6 to 14 August. For the Games, hard surface courts will be used, which contributes to a dynamic and tough game. It was decided that in this way it would be possible to increase the spectacle and drama, which are well known to those who are fond of tennis.
- 6–7 August: First round of singles and doubles in men's and women's categories will take place;
- August 8: for singles 1/16 finals, for doubles - 1/8;
- August 9: Singles and doubles: 1/16, 1/8 and quarter-finals;
- 10 August: Singles and Doubles, Mixed Doubles Round 1 starts;
- 11 August: Men's singles and mixed doubles quarter-finals, women's semi-finals;
- 12 August: Men's doubles finals;
- August 13: women's singles finals, matches for 3rd places in other disciplines;
- 14 August: Men's singles, women's doubles and mixed finals.
Tennis traditionally gathers full halls when competitions of this magnitude are held. This is very spectator sport, here you can observe excellent technique, the ability to apply unusual techniques, as well as psychological competition.
For the game, a court is used, which necessarily has a special coating. In the middle they stretch the net, play with rackets and a ball covered with felt. Its bright coloring allows you to comfortably observe what is happening. To score a point, a player or team sends the ball to the opponent in such a way that he fails to hit it correctly.
